A massive storm has left scars all across Ponyville in its wake. Time will fade the physical damage, but how do you heal a wound that you can't see?
In the wake of a massive storm, time and patience will heal the physical damage to Ponyville and its residents. But how do you treat an injury that you can't see? ------------------------ Winner of the TwiDash Writing Competition v3.5 Featured by The Royal Guard
Gorgeous cover art by the extremely talented Viwrastupr
The slight rise of pressure in Rainbow's ear was the first tell. Already heightened senses hummed through her body, waiting for the next, most important sign, and a half-breath later, it came. The smaller feathers on her left wing stood on edge, the static charge in the air reverberating through her bones. The strike wouldn't be on top of her, but to her left, probably at her ten o'clock. The last time she saw anything clearly, though, there was another pony in that exact spot.
"Cloud Kicker! Dive left now!"
The words had barely left her mouth when the sky ripped itself apart in front of her. In the midst of the blinding white light, she could barely see a lavender and yellow flash curling around the lightning bolt, flipping in the air with a grace that belied the scant inches that separated the other pony from certain death. An acrid mixture of copper and burnt atmosphere clung to her nostrils as she swerved left to intercept the nearly torched pegasus.
"Whew, thanks! That was a close one!" Cloud Kicker yelled.
"No sweat! You alright?" Rainbow asked in return. In truth, Rainbow could barely hear or see anything through the dark maelstrom of rain and wind. But the fact that she had heard anything at all meant that her weather team partner was at least alive.
"We've got to get out of here! Have you seen Thunder?"
"Have I seen who?"
"I said, have you seen Thun— Ah!"
Rainbow jerked wildly as a hoof tapped her shoulder. Spinning around, she caught sight of Thunderlane, his blue and silver mane matted across his soaked grey coat.
"Miss me, Rainbow?"
Forcing her heart back down from her throat, Rainbow sputtered out a reply. "Y-yes, we did, Thunder! I thought your team was covering our left side! Cloudy and I could have been crispier than hay fries just now!"
Thunderlane ran a hoof over his head in a futile attempt to wipe his soaked mane away from his yellow eyes. "Sorry, but it's chaos up here! Ditzy's team got caught in a massive cross-draft and crashed into the fields at Sweet Apple Acres, and I had to redirect my team towards the North edge of town to support the Wonderbolts!"
Rainbow ran through the remaining weather teams in her head, and frowned intently as her count came up woefully short. Accidents had occurred at the weather factory in the past, but never to this magnitude. A complete failure of the containment system separating the low and high pressure energy stores ignited a completely unbalanced reaction between the two mutually destructive forces. The resulting explosion all but destroyed the factory and left a truly massive storm in its wake. As Captain of the Ponyville weather team, it was Rainbow's job to lead the efforts to combat the monster storm... And for the first time in a long time, she found herself on the losing end of a fight.
All three pegasi instinctively jumped as another flash of lightning lit up the sky behind them. Swallowing hard to push the bile back down her throat, Rainbow tried to project calm as best she could.
"We'll need to send a medical unit to check on Ditzy's team, make sure there aren't any serious injuries. What about Cloud Chaser's team?"
Thunderlane's face quickly turned into a dark grimace. "Last thing I heard from her was something about a possible wall cloud... Then, nothing. I can't find her or her team, and the Wonderbolts haven't seen them either."
Rainbow's stomach was doing a barrel roll inside of her body, but her mind refused to accept what she had just heard. "Thunder, I know this storm is bad... Okay, it's really, really bad."
"Umm...Rainbow?" Cloud Kicker tried to get Rainbow's attention, but her voice was lost in the roar of the driving rain.
"But there is no way she saw a wall cloud! The only time you ever hear of those is in weather team training books, and it's been over a hundred years since anypony has even seen one!"
"Rainbow? Hey, Rainbow!" Cloud Kicker tried to yell above the storm.
"I'm telling you Thunder, there's no wall cloud! It's just not possible!"
"Rainbow!"
"What?! Geez, you don't have to yell, Cloudy!"
She paused when she saw the terrified look on Cloud Kicker's face, her hoof pointing over Rainbow's shoulder. Rainbow spun in place to see what she was pointing at... and looked straight into a nightmare.
In the distance, a massive, mile-high wall cloud was rolling across the landscape, plunging everything it touched into a rain-driven blackout. The three pegasi hovered in place, looking on in disbelief as the seemingly solid wall consumed Ponyville street by street, block by block, inching ever further towards the town's central square.
Part of Rainbow's mind would have given nearly anything to be back in the Golden Oak Library, where a warm fire and her best friend were awaiting her return. The sky had been perfectly clear when she arrived for her customary weekly visit with Twilight, and Rainbow had intended for this to be a particularly special visit. In fact, she was mere moments from admitting her months long crush on Twilight and asking her out on a date when the scream of the Cloudsdale weather alarms pierced the night air.
At first, she thought there had been a mistake, or an unscheduled test, as the alarms had not been used in a real emergency in years. One look out the window, however, revealed the true gravity of the situation; the Cloudsdale skyline was awash in flames and smoke, and the local weather was quickly spiraling out of control. With a quick smile and a promise to return, Rainbow had leapt out into the night, but now, the only leap her mind wanted to make was back to the library.
Come on, pull yourself together, RD! Rainbow's mind yelled at her inner self. You're the Captain of the weather team, and ponies are counting on you. Now is not the time to go run and hide. Rainbow stamped down the butterflies in her gut and turned to her partners with a renewed look of determination etched into her muzzle.
"Cloudy, Thunder, Ponyville needs us now more than ever, and I'm not going to hover out here and do nothing. We may not be able to stop this thing, but we have to at least make sure that everypony is safe!" Not waiting for their replies, Rainbow turned and shot off into the ever darker night, aiming straight for the wall cloud.
Rainbow approached the wall cloud at breakneck speed, her two partners only a few wing beats behind her. Severe cross-drafts grew stronger and stronger the closer they got, and bit-sized hail began pelting them from all angles. Even Rainbow's powerful wings struggled to maintain a stable flight, the vicious air currents batting her around like a hoofball.
What limited sight she had was quickly obscured by her fogged-up goggles, the torrential rain forcing its way past the eyewear as if it were not there at all. No obvious way through this, so we'll just have to make our own door.
"We'll have to force our way in! Ride the next current in and blast your way through!" As if on cue, Rainbow crossed the path of another current, and she immediately steered into it, letting the wave of air catapult her towards the wall cloud with even greater speed than before. With the cloud nearly upon her, Rainbow stretched out her legs even more and lowered her head, presenting the smallest profile possible. With a loud yell into the wind, Rainbow tore into the rampaging storm, piercing the wall cloud like a knife through butter.
As soon as she cleared the cloud barrier, a cross-wind slammed into her like a runaway train, sending Rainbow hurtling towards the ground in an uncontrollable spin. She tried to scream, but the wind ripped the sound from her mouth in an instant. She wasn't sure which end was even up, but the last thing she saw was the fast approach of the cobblestone paths that made up Ponyville's central square.
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Rainbow's head was still spinning like a top as she tried to reorient herself. She brushed her mud-splattered mane out of her eyes, only to find herself lying nearly face down in a grimy puddle. With a loud groan, she lifted herself up as best she could and began scanning the area for her two teammates.
"Thunder! Cloudy! Are you okay? Where are you?"
"We're here! Rainbow, we're right ove— Oww!"
Fighting very unsteady hooves and a spinning head, Rainbow moved as quick as she dared in the direction of the painful shouts. She squinted her eyes in a vain attempt to see through the torrents of wind and rain that pelted her from all sides. Another flash of lightning cut through the sky, casting the square in a mixture of white light and knife-edged shadow. The light was gone as soon as it appeared, but it was enough to reveal the forms of two pegasi lying in a heap near the fountain at the center of the square. Doing her best to turn her head away from the driving rain, Rainbow made her way to her downed partners, praying to Celestia that they were not badly hurt.
"Are you two okay? What happened?" asked Rainbow as she tried to pull Cloud Kicker off of an unconscious Thunderlane.
"I... Oof... I don't know. Thunder and I were right behind you, but as soon as we breached the wall cloud, the world started spinning out of control. I tried grabbing on to Thunderlane, but all that did was drag him down with me."
"Can you stand?" Rainbow answered as she offered a helping hoof to Cloud Kicker. "We need to check on Thunder and get you both to shelter!"
"I-I think so. Just let me try and get whoa— Ahh!"
Rainbow barely caught Cloud Kicker before she toppled on to her side, clearly favoring her right foreleg. "I... Ow! Oh, pony feathers, I... I must have sprained a fetlock," she said between hurried, painful breaths.
"Just hold on, alright?" said Rainbow. "I'll get Thunder, and we'll get out of here! The heart of the storm will be here any minute!"
Rainbow guided Cloud Kicker a few steps to her left and slowly sat her down onto the ledge of the overflowing fountain. As soon as the hobbled flyer was situated, Rainbow turned her attention to Thunderlane, who was just beginning to stir.
Rainbow didn't need much light to see that he had sustained a serious wing injury. The leading edge of his left wing was clearly broken, the normally solid, smooth bone line rough and out of alignment.
"Thunder? Can you hear me?" asked Rainbow, gently placing a hoof on his back.
"Dash? Wha... What happ— Ahh!" Thunderlane's question morphed into a painful cry as he shuddered in pain. As gingerly as she could, Rainbow let some of her weight fall onto his quivering shoulders, pinning him down to the ground.
"Thunder, your wing is broken, so try to lie still! Moving will only make it worse!"
"Buck me... It's that bad, huh?" Thunder winced. "How's Cloudy?"
"A little banged up, but she'll be fine! Right now though, I need to tie down your wing before you damage it further!" Rainbow's mind quickly went back to the first aid training she received from the weather team school, and an idea struck her.
She removed her flight goggles and set them on the soaked ground before turning to Thunderlane, gingerly removing his goggles from around his neck without jostling him. She set to work disassembling both pairs of goggles, separating the black elastic bands from the eye pieces. Fighting her soaked hooves and her frayed nerves, Rainbow didn't hear the metallic shriek ring out in front of her.
"Rainbow get down!"
Rainbow didn't even have time to look up before Cloud Kicker dove into her, knocking them both to the ground seconds before the sign from the Sofa & Quills store tumbled through the air mere inches above their heads. The blast of wind in the sign's wake tore one of the elastic bands from Rainbow's hooves, carrying it too into the endless maelstrom.
"You okay?" yelled Cloud Kicker as she struggled to roll off of Rainbow's back.
"Yeah... Though I guess this makes us even now at one save apiece." A smile tugged at the corner of Rainbow's lips for a split-second before fading into a look of despair. "But, I lost the elastic from my goggles, and I needed them to tie up Thunder's wing."
Realizing that she had managed to hang onto her own pair of goggles amidst the chaos, Cloud Kicker removed them as best she could with one hoof and tossed them to Rainbow. "Here, take mine. I'll look out for any more flying signs!"
Rainbow set to the task once again, working as quickly as her soaked hooves could move. She disassembled the new pair of goggles and tied the two elastic bands together to increase its overall length. After a series of loops and double-knots, Rainbow had managed to tie down the damaged wing enough to prevent most movement.
"This isn't perfect, but it'll keep the break from getting worse. Try not to move your wings, got it?"
Thunderlane grunted a bit from the pain. "Yeah, I've... Oww... I've got it."
Rainbow nodded her head in reply as she concentrated on lifting Thunderlane to his hooves, taking care not to touch his injured wing. "This is hopeless." Exhaustion was already creeping into Rainbow’s voice. "Both of you are injured, and this storm's right on top of us!" She jumped to the side as a small bush flew past her legs. "We need to find shelter and some medical attention!"
Cloud Kicker took a quick look around the square, trying her best to shield her face against the torrential rain. "The shops are all closed, but I guess a busted door would be the least of their worries right now."
"Good idea. BonBon's shop is the closest one, so let's head there!" An ear-shattering thunderclap erupted behind them, this one close enough to again leave the smell of burnt ozone in Rainbow's nose. Her senses jolted into hyper-speed, the incessant assault of rain, wind, and flying debris felt twice as intense as before, and for the first time in a very long time, Rainbow felt pure, unfiltered fear running through her veins. "We have to go now, before one of us gets hit!"
Rainbow nearly fell twice as she tried to stand, her hooves constantly slipping in the muddy ground. Her head was pounding as hard as her heart, her vision was still clouded by the rain, and hearing was all but impossible. She was running on pure instinct – but this time, it told her to get out of trouble, instead of running straight to it.
She was about to drag her injured partners to their hooves when nearly every feather on her wings stood straight up into the air, her bones shivering like a tuning fork as the static charge raced around and through her. The ringing in her ears built up so fast, she had to fight to keep from blacking out on the spot. Rainbow could almost hear the hum in the air as the charge continued to build at a frightening rate.
"Get down!" Rainbow had barely hit the ground again when the gates of Tartarus broke loose around them.
A massive surge of lightning raced its way through the wall cloud, drawing a jagged, crackling circle of light above the square. In the blink of an eye, the searing white light arced in and out of the clouds, splitting and reforming more times than anypony could possibly count. Under any other circumstance, the instantaneous display of light and power would be awe-inspiring, but in the midst of this chaos, it felt like the world was ripping itself apart around Rainbow.
As the white-hot light raced above them past the end of the square, a second lightning bolt shot down into its path, splitting the first arc and sending an enormous blast of energy directly to the ground. The ground strike was immediate, lighting up the blackened sky like a second sun.
If the sun was pink.
Rainbow didn't have to wonder what the lightning had made contact with when it hit. Even the horrific roar of the accompanying thunderclap couldn't drown out the blood-curdling scream that ripped through the air around her like an enraged banshee. As soon as it pierced her ears, Rainbow's heart nearly stopped mid-beat.
She knew that voice. She knew it all too well, and she knew exactly where it had come from.
Her injured partners, the mud and debris that kicked up around her, the panic that coursed through her... All of it faded to the background as Rainbow tore across the square towards the library.
She was closing fast on the edge of the square, its border marked with a row of benches and the twisted remains of formerly tall, well-maintained bushes. Driving more speed into her tired legs, she launched herself into the air, her barrel clearing the top of a bench with room to spare. Under other circumstances, Rainbow might have stopped to admire her athletic prowess, but now, with her best friend in dire need, she continued her charge as soon as her hooves touched the ground.
Her thundering hooves created a massive spray of water in her wake as she rocketed out of the square, her tattered mane splayed out behind her head. Continued lightning strikes lit up the sky like an ill-timed strobe light, revealing Rainbow as a single streak of color against the oppressive black sky.
Her heart thundered in her chest as she bore down on the street corner ahead of her. Rainbow dug her front hooves into the ground, willing her body to take the oncoming left turn at a near right angle. Instead, the muddy, flooded ground betrayed her front hooves, and the sudden loss of traction sent her sliding into a food stall that was somehow still standing.
She screamed out as her body fell wildly into the small wooden stall, her momentum all but tearing the structure to shreds in her wake. Pain lanced through her body as splinters and shards of wood attacked her from all angles, taking every opportunity to draw blood as payment for its untimely destruction. Rainbow bit back the pain with a grunt as she struggled to get up, her hooves slipping on muddy ground and wet, broken planks of wood.
Finally throwing the last plank off of her back, Rainbow jumped out of the broken remains of the stall and turned towards the street, rearing up to continue her mad dash. Her eyes caught sight of the library ahead of her, and her body froze in place.
What was once a nightmare for Rainbow turned into an unimaginable hell.
The normally friendly and inviting Golden Oak Library was now a towering inferno that looked as if a piece of Tartarus itself had teleported to Ponyville. Rainbow stood in pure shock as her blood turned ice cold in her veins. The command to do so never registered in her brain, yet Rainbow cried out as she bolted down the street, driven by equal parts instinct and desperation.
"Twilight!"
Rainbow could see a small gaggle of other ponies rushing around the building as she closed in. Some were merely panicking, while others were running back and forth with buckets of water, doing their best to try and quench the flames that were quickly spreading throughout the ancient tree. Rainbow barreled headlong into the group of impromptu fire-ponies, grabbing the first one she could by its mane.
"Where is she? Where's Twilight?!"
"She's trapped in there, and we can't get to her!" he sputtered. "We came as soon as the lightning struck, but the fire is too hot! Wait! What they hay are you do—"
His voice was lost to the howling wind as Rainbow nearly ran him over as she sprinted towards the library. Searing flames licked at her coat and tail as she skirted the edge of the tree, doing her best to get closer to the burning structure. The other ponies continued to throw buckets of water at the tree, but the water all but evaporated into clouds of steam before even touching the flames. Even the raging storm, with its torrential downpours, was no match for the intensity of the blaze. Fueled by the endless reams of paper inside, the fire continued unabated, coursing down the tree like a molten snake.
Fighting for traction with every step, Rainbow continued her mad rush around the burning tree, checking every window that she could for any sign of Twilight. She spotted a break in the billowing cloud of smoke and jumped through in an instant, coming to a stop in front of the large window that looked out from the library's modest kitchen.
"Twilight? Twilight, can you hear me?!" Rainbow screamed at the window, her voice carrying as high as her smoke- and soot-filled lungs would allow her. She continued yelling, craning her neck in every direction imaginable to see through the thick haze that was quickly obscuring her view of the interior room.
With each passing second, the raging fire crept further and further down the remaining exterior of the tree, raining equal amounts of burnt debris and sheer desperation on top of Rainbow. Ignoring the rain, the soot, and the debris, she reared up on her hind legs and pressed her muzzle up to the window, crying out for Twilight as she pounded her hooves against the glass.
"Twilight! Where are yo—" her voice was cut off mid-yell as a pair of hooves appeared out of nowhere, planting themselves onto the inside of the smoke-filled window. Rainbow's eyes widened in shock as Twilight's upper body emerged from the smoke like a ghost. The moment of elation she felt upon seeing her friend was quickly crushed as her eyes focused on the unicorn's condition. Her coat and mane were tattered and soot-stained, her bloodshot eyes already showing the effects of extended exposure to the smoke and heat. She doesn't have much time, Rainbow thought as panic welled up inside of her mind again. I've got to get her out of there.
"Twilight, can you hear me?" Rainbow pressed her nose against the window as if she could physically force her voice through it. Twilight stopped a coughing fit long enough to weekly nod her head in affirmation.
"Can you make it to the front? I can run in there and grab you!" she yelled again, pointing a soaked foreleg towards the front side of the library.
Twilight opened and closed her mouth a few times, but Rainbow heard nothing. She could see Twilght's lips moving, but could not pick out the unicorn's weakened voice over the twin roars of the encroaching fire and the still raging storm. Finally, Twilight leaned off of the window, and with shaky hooves, spelled out her response in the thick fog that was growing on the inside of the glass:
FIRE
As if to accentuate her point, the door on the other side of the room suddenly collapsed on itself as the raging fire took its toll on the wooden frame and simple metal hinges. Twilight whipped her head around to see flames quickly moving through the door frame, already pressing the attack to the fixtures and walls in this, the last room left on the ground floor. Panic began to grip Rainbow like a vice, setting off a hundred sonic rainbooms inside her head at once. Time was running out, and the options were expiring even faster than the clock. Grasping for something, anything that could help, she yelled out again.
"What about magic?! Can you teleport outside?"
Again, Twilight shook her head, though even that motion was cut short as bone wrenching coughs rocked her sweaty, tattered frame, what little air she could hold choked out of her lungs by the thick, black smoke.
Her mind quickly racing towards the edge, Rainbow banged her hooves against the window to regain Twilight's attention. "You have to try, Twilight! Please! You can do this!"
Twilight looked behind her again to find the flames nearing the middle of the room, the island and a few other fixtures now the only things left between her and oblivion. She drew a deep breath and closed her bloodshot eyes in concentration. A faint glimmer of hope rose in Rainbow's mind as a faint glow began to envelope Twilight's soot-stained horn. Through the window, Rainbow could see Twilight's entire body shaking from exertion, as she poured everything she had left into the spell.
"Ahh... Ngh... Ahh!" Twilight let out a painful wail as her magic finally hit a wall, and she collapsed into the counter next to her. Rainbow was still banging her hooves into the double-paned window, the hardened glass proving as resilient against her repeated blows as it normally did against the elements. She was about to strike the window again when Twilight's face appeared through the fog and smoke, somehow looking even worse than she had a few seconds ago. Another bolt of lightning lit up the sky behind Rainbow, casting the battered, nearly broken unicorn into a painful, almost cruel relief.
The sting of a hot ember in her soaked mane caused Rainbow to look up through the rain, only to see the raging trail of fire nearly upon her, the wind having driven it nearly completely around the library. Out of both time and options, the last sliver of rational thought in Rainbow's mind gave way to a wild, desperate rage. To Tartarus with it! If Twilight can't get out, I'm going in there to get her – consequences be damned!
"Hold on Twi! I'm coming in th—"
A sickening, stomach-turning crack shook the tree; Rainbow snapped her head up again to try and identify the source of the noise, but she didn't have to look for long before the storm gave her an answer.
Another horrific snap pierced the air, and Rainbow could only watch in horror as the top half of the tree, scorched and ravaged by the fire, imploded.
"Twilight, get out of there!"
Whether the unicorn ever heard her, she couldn't tell.
The fiery remains of the top of the tree crashed through the ceiling into the main level of the library, seemingly crushing everything in its path. Twilight was nowhere to be seen, the kitchen now fully engulfed in flames.
"Nonononono... No!" Rainbow screamed as she launched herself into the air, darting back about thirty feet from the window before spinning around and lunging forward as hard as she could. She flipped in the air at the last possible second and, with a final burst of speed, slammed her hind legs into the kitchen window. The window exploded around Rainbow as she drove through the opening, closing her eyes against the hail of broken wood and shattered glass that hit at her from all sides.
And that's when she ran into a wall of flame.
The sudden influx of oxygen into the kitchen instantly created a massive back-draft that flew right at Rainbow, flinging her back out of the now broken window as fast as she had come crashing through it.
"Ahh!" Rainbow screamed as she was flung back like a foal's rag doll; remnants of flame still licked at the tattered edges of her mane and tail as she tumbled through the air, finally skidding to a stop on the ground about fifty feet away from the tree.
Her mind and vision were reeling from the impact and the sudden vertigo, but Rainbow needed neither of them to comprehend what she was seeing. There, fifty feet in front of her, she witnessed the final destruction of the Golden Oak Library. The now uncontrollable flames raced through the remaining structure, feeding ravenously from the fresh oxygen that Rainbow's failed rescue attempt had introduced into the mix.
Failure.
The word crossed Rainbow's mind, and it felt like a knife to her heart. Her rescue attempt had failed, and somewhere in the inferno was Twilight Sparkle – Librarian, personal student of the Princess, bearer of the Element of Magic, one of the most powerful unicorns in all of Equestria.
I failed.
Twilight Sparkle – Friend. Confidant. The mare of her dreams.
I failed.
And she was gone.
In that moment, Rainbow's entire world shattered like glass beneath a hammer.
She screamed hysterically, flailing her hooves as she fought desperately to find traction in the muddy ground. Completely oblivious to the still pouring rain, she dragged herself forward one hoof at a time, crying and screaming like a mare possessed. Her uneven progress was abruptly stopped as two grey hooves dropped onto her back, bringing what little momentum she had to an immediate halt.
"Rainbow, stay down! You can't go back!" yelled Thunderlane as he tried to somehow keep Rainbow still without ruffling his injured wing. Rainbow whipped her head around to face him, her magenta eyes filled with blind, desperate rage.
"Let me go, Thunder! I have to get Twilight! I can still save her!"
"It's too late, Rainbow! The fire is out of control! You'll never make it out alive!"
"Buck you!" she shrieked. "I can save her, and you can't stop me!" Rainbow's eyes narrowed dangerously, all of her rage channeling towards the stallion that held her down.
"Now get out of my way!"
Rainbow punctuated her words with a sharp kick from her hind legs, catching Thunderlane right under his damaged wing. He collapsed immediately, unable to fight off the sudden burst of pain. Rainbow rolled to the side and scrambled to her hooves, her body willing itself forward before she had even stood halfway up.
She only made it a few more feet before Thunderlane's hooves descended upon her again, only this time his were joined by a second set of hooves as the newly arrived Cloud Kicker did what she could to hold the manic pegasus down. Rainbow pushed and squirmed all the more, her defiant cries growing louder by the second. It was all that the two other pegasi could do to hold the enraged mare down.
Finally, Rainbow was able to loosen their hold on her enough to let her turn her upper body to mostly face them. She opened her mouth for another violent outburst, but she managed only a silent scream as her mind crumbled like the remaining pieces of the library.
"Why, why, why? How did this happen? Why couldn't I save her?" The words finally came pouring out of Rainbow's mouth as a torrent of rage and grief burned her from the inside out, racking her tired body with uncontrollable sobs.
"You did everything you could and then some!" Thunderlane tried to inject a soothing tone into his voice. "There was nothing else you could have done." He raised a hoof to Rainbow's face, doing his best to brush a piece of mane out of her eye, but Rainbow slapped it away, screaming all the more.
"No! There had to be! I could have done more!" she shrieked. "Why her? Why now?! She was my best friend! Why her?" Rainbow continued shuddering as grief, rage, and despair fought a war inside of her mind.
"Rainbow, I know this is a lot to process, but you have to calm down," Cloud Kicker pleaded as she tightened her grip on the hysterical mare. "I know Twilight meant a lot to yo—"
"Yes she meant a lot to me!" Rainbow screamed out, her distraught eyes boring a hole straight through the other mare. "You have no bucking idea what she meant to me! She was my best friend for buck's sake!" Rainbow turned her fiery gaze back to Thunderlane as her voice grew raw.
"I loved her! Do you hear me? I loved Twilight!"
Her forelegs shot out and grabbed Thunderlane, pulling his muzzle even with her own. "But she'll never know because she's gone! Twilight's bucking gone, and it's all my fault!" Her voice finally exhausted, Rainbow nearly collapsed into Thunderlane, an endless stream of bitter tears falling into his already soaked and wind-blown mane.
"Gone? I'm not gone Rainbow, I'm right here!"
Rainbow's mind froze in an instant.
She knew that voice. She knew it all too well. But this time, she had no idea where it had come from.
Rainbow scrunched her eyes shut and shook her head violently, as if she could just will away what she had just heard. She opened her eyes again, and time itself seemed to stop; Thunderlane was gone, and in his place was a ghost.
Twilight Sparkle was mere inches away from Rainbow, her muzzle squeezed tightly between Rainbow's hooves. Her coat and mane shone with their usual luster, the lone streak of pink in her hair lying exactly where she remembered it. Her violet eyes were as clear and vibrant as a sunny day, and her horn bore not a speck of soot or dirt on it.
"Twilight?! Wait, this can't be real... You can't be real!" Rainbow's entire body shook as she spoke, her mind too broken to even try to rationalize what it was seeing.
"No, it's me Rainbow," she replied. "I'm really here, and I'm very real." Twilight's face glowed with the same soft, warm smile that had enraptured Rainbow countless times before.
Rainbow stared in utter shock, what little was left of her mind on the verge of a meltdown. "No! That's not possible! I saw you in the library, in the fire! I tried to save you, but I failed! I watched it all burn, for Luna's sake! You can't be real!"
Twilight leaned forward and stared directly into Rainbow's tear-stained eyes. "If I wasn't real, you wouldn't be able to feel this."
"Feel wh— Mmph!" Rainbow's voice was cut off as Twilight darted forward, locking her lips to Rainbow's in a fervent, heated kiss. Rainbow's mind struggled to process anything, but as Twilight wrapped a hoof around her neck to press the kiss deeper, Rainbow closed her eyes and surrendered what was left of her soul to what was surely a very authentic figment of her broken mind.
As their kiss continued, the raging storm receded to a drizzle, while the raging inferno dissipated into something the size of a campfire. Her tattered, soaked coat began not just to dry, but to grow warm and healthy, as if she had never been outside at all that day. Even the night sky, which had been blacked out by the horrific storm, began to reveal itself once more, Luna's many creations lighting the nighttime with their faint glow.
Finally, Twilight, or some apparition thereof, broke the kiss.
"Rainbow, wake up. Open your eyes."
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Her eyes snapped open, and in an instant, reality hit Rainbow like a sack of apples. The soaked, muddy ground was gone, replaced with a soft bed covered in a crumpled mess of star-crossed sheets. The endless roar of the wind and rain were nowhere to be found, replaced by the beat of her still thundering heart. Gone too were the blinding light and searing heat of the fire, replaced instead with the soft glow of a lantern and the controlled warmth of a fireplace.
A shudder raced up her spine as her mind caught up to the fact that she was curled up on a corner of the bed and covered in a cold layer of sweat, her mane and tail matted and frazzled worse than she had ever seen.
"It was the nightmare again, wasn't it?" Twilight asked softly as she took a seat on the bed next to Rainbow.
A wave of embarrassment washed over the still shivering pegasus, her face too ridden with despair to look directly at Twilight. "Y-yeah, I guess it was. Again."
Twilight gently placed a hoof onto Rainbow's as she continued. "Was it the same one as last time, or was it different?"
"It was different... In fact, it was worse," she muttered. "Much, much worse."
Twilight drew a deep breath as she wrapped Rainbow into a gentle but firm embrace. She looked briefly at the bedroom door and breathed a sigh of relief when she heard no sounds coming up the stairs. "Okay Rainbow, tell me. What did you see? How bad was it?"
"You know you don't have to do this," Rainbow answered quietly. "It has to be painful hearing me tell this tale over and over."
"I'll admit, it's not always easy," Twilight cooed softly into Rainbow's ear. "But it's the least I can do for the pony that saved my life..." She tenderly kissed the tip of Rainbow's ear. "...and captured my heart in the process."
Rainbow looked up at that moment, her gaze rising to match Twilight's. For a few seconds, she looked deep into the unicorn's violet eyes, her lower lip quivering as her mind struggled to begin recounting the horrors it had just acted out. Finally, she began to speak, fighting back tears with every word.
"It– It was the same as before... The accident, the storm, the lightning, everything. B-but this time..." Rainbow stopped to try and collect herself once again, but her resolve was quickly fading. "This time... This time, I failed! I failed you, Twilight! I'm so, so sorry!"
"Failed?" asked Twilight. "What do you mean? How could you ever fail anypony?"
The image of the burning tree flashed in Rainbow's mind once again, shattering what little grip she had on her emotions. She flung herself deeper into Twilight's embrace, burying her muzzle into the unicorn's mane. "I saw the library burn, but I couldn't save you! I tried and I tried, but I couldn't do it!
Rainbow continued to sob and cry freely, her body shuddering with each broken breath. "It all burned to the ground, and there was nothing I could do! I lost you, Twi!"
Twilight tightened her grip on the still sobbing pegasus. "Rainbow, that was three months ago, and you know that's not what happened. Yes, there was an accident at the weather factory, and yes, a lightning strike set the library on fire." She gently stroked a hoof through Rainbow's frazzled mane. "But you didn't fail; you were a hero. You saved me."
"But... But the fire! I couldn't stop it!" Rainbow’s weak voice was further muffled by Twilight's mane.
"You didn't need to, remember? Your partners on the weather team helped put out the fire, but not before you dove through the kitchen window to pull me out of here. We even have the scars to prove it. Here, look."
Loosening their embrace, Twilight used her now free hoof to brush her mane over to the other side of her neck, revealing a small patch of smooth, hairless skin. "A piece of debris got caught under my mane as I ran away from the flames upstairs, and by the time I dislodged it, my skin was a bit burnt. I'll be okay, but the fur won't grow back."
Rainbow's eyes narrowed to pin pricks at the sight of the injury, but owing to her previous runs through episodes like this, Twilight continued before Rainbow could respond. "As for you, your right hind leg was cut when you dove through the window to get me."
Rainbow immediately sat up and turned her head down towards her legs. There, on the inside of her hindquarter, was a small, pink, jagged scar. Twilight kissed her free hoof, and gently placed it on top of the scar.
"As I recall, you didn't tell anypony about the injury until you came to visit me that night in the hospital." A small smile played at the corner of Twilight's lips. "In fact, the only reason you had a doctor check you out is because I refused to agree to your request for a date until you did."
A ghost of a smile tugged at Rainbow's lips as her sobbing continued to subside. Rainbow looked again into Twilight's gleaming eyes, and a pang of guilt flashed through her as she saw the heartache that stewed behind her marefriend's loving gaze.
"I'm sorry, Twi. I just wish the dreams would stop and we could be happy again."
Twilight nuzzled Rainbow gently before cradling her head in her hooves. "Don't ever apologize for any of it, Rainbow. We still don't know what's causing your mind to torture you like this, but we'll find a way to fix it." She gently kissed the top of Rainbow's head. "But, the doctors here have done all they can. We're going to have to get help from Princess Luna now."
"A-are you sure?" Rainbow whispered in response. "I feel like I'm broken, Twi. Can she really do anything to help?"
"If anypony can find a solution, she can," Twilight cooed. "I believe in the princess just like I believe in you, Dashie."
"Now, you need some sleep," Twilight said as she released her grip on Rainbow. "Come on, let's get you settled." As she spoke, she got up off of the bed, giving Rainbow some room to settle back onto her side of the bed. A quick flick of her magic reset the sheets into some semblance of order and flipped both pillows to their cooler side. Rainbow settled in with her back to Twilight, her breathing still punctuated with small gasps and sniffles.
Twilight bookmarked the scientific journal that she had been studying from before slipping under the covers next to Rainbow. A final pinch of magic doused the light from the fireplace as well as the bedside lantern, leaving the room bathed in the soft glow of the moonlight. Twilight scooted closer to Rainbow and wrapped her hooves around her as she snuggled against her marefriend's back.
"Twilight?" Rainbow asked meekly. "Will this ever stop?"
In that moment, there was only one thing that Twilight could say even if she wasn't entirely sure of herself. "It'll stop, Rainbow, I promise." She placed a soft kiss onto the back of her neck. "You risked everything to save me... Now it's my turn to save you."
As she gazed quietly at the moon, Rainbow never saw the faint glow of Twilight's horn as she cast a soothing spell to lull her into a restful, dreamless sleep.
Nor could Rainbow see the tears that rolled down Twilight’s cheek as she silently cried herself to sleep behind her.
The slight rise of pressure in her ear was the first tell. Already heightened senses hummed through her body, waiting for the next, most important sign, and a half-breath later, it came. The smaller feathers on her soddened left wing stood on edge, the static charge in the air reverberating through her bones. The strike wouldn't be on top of her, but to her left, probably at her ten o'clock. The last time she saw anything clearly, though, there was another pony in that exact spot.
"Cloud Kicker!! Dive left NOW!!"
The warning had barely left her mouth when the same patch of sky ripped itself apart in front of her. In the midst of the blinding white light, she could barely see a lavender and yellow flash curling around the lightning bolt, flipping in the air with a grace that belied the scant inches that separated the other pony from certain death. An acrid mixture of copper and burnt atmosphere clung to her nostrils as she swerved left to intercept the nearly torched pegasus.
"Whew, thanks! That was a close one!" the mare yelled.
"No sweat! You ok?" replied Rainbow.
In truth, Rainbow could barely hear anything over the maelstrom of rain and wind, and the nearly complete cloud cover blocked out most of the night sky. But the fact that she had heard anything at all meant that her weather team partner was at least alive.
"We've got to get out of here! This storm is too big and too fast! Have you seen Thunder?"
For her part, Cloud Kicker could barely hear or see as well, and was mostly assuming that the pony she was yelling to was Rainbow Dash.
"Have I seen who??"
"I said, HAVE YOU SEEN THUN--AH!!"
Rainbow jerked wildly as a hoof tapped her shoulder. Spinning around, she caught sight of Thunder Lane, his blue and silver mane matted across his soaked grey coat.
"Miss me, Rainbow?"
Forcing her heart back down from her throat, Rainbow sputtered out a reply. "Yes, we did, Thunder! I thought your team was covering our left side!! We could have been crispier than hay fries just now!"
Thunder ran a hoof over his head, wiping his wet mane away from his yellow eyes, if only for a few seconds. "Sorry, but it's chaos up here! Ditzy's team got caught in a massive cross-draft and crashed into the fields at Sweet Apple Acres, and I had to redirect my team towards the North edge of town to support the Wonderbolts!"
In that moment, Rainbow was glad that the low visibility hid her obvious cringe as she processed the new developments. Accidents had occurred at the weather factory in the past, but never to this magnitude. A complete failure of the containment system separating the stores of low and high pressure energy ignited a completely unbalanced reaction between the two mutually destructive forces. The only thing worse than the initial explosion was the enormous storm that was created in its wake. As Captain of the Ponyville weather team, it was Rainbow's job to lead the efforts to combat the monster storm.
All three pegasi instinctively jumped as another flash of lightning lit up the sky behind them. Swallowing hard to push the bile back down her throat, Rainbow tried to project calm as best she could.
"We'll need to send a medical unit to check on Ditzy's team, make sure there aren't any serious injuries. What about Cloud Chaser's team?"
Even the clouds couldn't hide Thunder's emotions, as his face quickly turned into a dark grimace. "Last thing I heard from her was something about a possible wall cloud... Then, nothing. I can't find her or her team, and the Wonderbolts haven't seen them either."
Rainbow's stomach was doing a barrel roll inside of her body, but her mind refused to accept such a development. "Thunder, I know this storm is bad... Ok, it's really, really bad."
"Umm...Rainbow?" Between Rainbow's still rising voice and the roar of the driving rain, Cloud Kicker's voice went unheeded.
"But there is no way she saw a wall cloud! The only time you ever hear of those is in weather team training books, and it's been over a hundred years since anypony has even seen one!"
"Rainbow? Hey, Rainbow!"
"I'm telling you, there's no wall cloud! It's just not possible!"
"RAINBOW!!!!!"
"What?! Geez, you don't have to yell, Kicker!"
All she got in response was a look of abject terror, as Cloud Kicker pointed a hoof past Rainbow's shoulder. Spinning in place to see what she was pointing at, Rainbow looked straight into a nightmare.
In the distance, a massive, mile high wall cloud was rolling across the landscape, plunging everything it touched into a rain driven blackout. The three pegasi hovered in place, looking on in pure shock as the seemingly solid wall consumed Ponyville street-by-street, block-by-block, inching ever further into the town's central square.
At that moment, Rainbow would have given nearly anything to be back in the Golden Oak library, where a warm fire and her best friend were awaiting her return. It was less than an hour ago that her weekly visit with Twilight was broken by the piercing scream of Cloudsdale's weather alarms. At first, she thought there had been a mistake, or an unscheduled test, as the alarms had not been used in a real emergency in years. One look out the window, however, quickly revealed the gravity of the situation; something very bad had happened in Cloudsdale, and the local weather was quickly spiraling out of control. With a quick smile and a promise to return, Rainbow had leapt out into the night, but now, the only leap her mind wanted to make was back to the library.
But Rainbow Dash knew that she was no ordinary pegasus. She was the Captain of the weather team, the best flyer in Equestria, a lock for a future spot on the Wonderbolts squad, and most importantly, the Element of Loyalty. With a practiced smoothness that belied the insane level of risk involved, Rainbow turned to her soaked partners, a look of determination etched into her muzzle.
"Kicker, Thunder, Ponyville needs us now more than ever, and I'm not going to hover out here and do nothing. We may not be able to stop this thing, but we have to at least make sure that everypony is safe!" Not waiting for their replies, Rainbow turned and shot off into the ever darker night, aiming straight for the wall cloud. Thunder Lane and Cloud Kicker shared a worried look before speeding off after their Captain, following the faint rainbow trail through the torrential rain, and towards the epicenter of the biggest storm they had ever seen.
Flying at breakneck speed, Rainbow Dash dove lower to the ground as she approached the cloud, Thunder Lane and Cloud Kicker only a few wing beats behind her. As they neared the massive weather formation, the sheer force of the cross-drafts made it very difficult to maintain a decent speed, and bit-sized hail began pelting them from all angles. Even Rainbow's powerful wings struggled to maintain a stable flight, the vicious air currents batting her around like a hoofball. What limited sight she had was quickly obscured by her fogged up goggles, the torrential rain forcing its way past the eyewear as if it were not there at all. With no obvious path into the monolithic cloud, Rainbow knew that a more direct approach was needed.
"WE'LL HAVE TO FORCE OUR WAY IN! RIDE THE NEXT CURRENT IN AND BLAST YOUR WAY THROUGH!!"
As if on cue, Rainbow crossed the path of another current, only this time, she steered into it, letting the wave of air carry her towards the wall cloud, gaining speed all the way. With the cloud nearly upon her, Rainbow stretched out her legs even more and lowered her head, presenting the smallest profile possible to the oncoming cloud. With a loud yell into the wind, Rainbow tore into the rampaging storm, piercing the wall cloud like a knife through butter.
As soon as she cleared the cloud barrier, a cross-wind slammed into her like a runaway train, sending Rainbow hurtling towards the ground in an uncontrollable spin. She tried to yell out to her wing mates, but the wind ripped the words from her mouth in an instant. She wasn't sure which end was even up, but the last thing she saw was the fast approach of the cobblestone paths that made up Ponyville's central square.
-----------------------------------
Rainbow's head was still spinning like a top as she tried to reorient herself. She found herself lying face down in a puddle, the ground around her soaked past the point of simple saturation. With an audible groan, she brushed her mud-splattered mane out of her eyes and began looking around intensely, trying to locate her two teammates.
"Thunder!! Kicker!! Are you ok?! Where are you?!"
"We're here! Rainbow, we're right ove--OWW!"
Rising on a set of very shaky hooves, Rainbow moved as quick as she dared in the direction of the painful shouts. Her eyes squinted to try and sharpen her focus, and to stop her head from spinning - neither of which were made any easier by the torrents of wind and rain that pelted her from all sides. Another flash of lightning cut through the sky, casting the square in a mixture of white light and knife-edged shadow. The light was gone as soon as it appeared, but it was enough to reveal the forms of two pegasi, lying in a heap near the fountain at the center of the square. Doing her best to turn her head away from the driving rain, Rainbow made her way to her downed partners, praying to Celestia that they were not badly hurt.
"Are you two ok?! What happened?" asked Rainbow, as she tried to pull Cloud Kicker off of a clearly blacked out Thunder Lane.
"I... Oof... I don't know. Thunder and I were right behind you, but as soon as we breached the wall cloud, the world started spinning out of control. I tried grabbing on to Thunder, but all that did was drag him down with me."
"Can you stand?" replied a still shaken Rainbow. "We need to check on Thunder, and get you both to shelter!"
Cloud Kicker raised a hoof over her eyes to wipe her soaked mane away, as she prepared to stand. "I...I think so...just let me try and get uoohhhAHH!!!"
Rainbow lunged forward, barely catching Cloud Kicker before she toppled on to her side, clearly favoring her right foreleg. Cloud Kicker's breaths were hurried, and laced with equal parts exhaustion and pain.
"I... OWW! Oh, pony feathers, I must have sprained a fetlock."
"Just hold on, ok?" said Rainbow. "Just lean into me, and we'll sit you back down."
Doing her best to support the injured leg, Rainbow guided Cloud Kicker a few steps to her left and slowly sat her down onto the ledge of the now over-flowing fountain. As soon as the now hobbled flyer was situated, Rainbow turned her attention to Thunder Lane, who was only now beginning to stir.
Rainbow didn't need much light to see that he had sustained a serious wing injury. The leading edge of the left wing was clearly broken, the normally solid, smooth bone line rough and out of alignment. No bones had broken through, but flying was clearly out of the question.
"Thunder? Can you hear me?" asked Rainbow, gently placing a hoof on his back.
"Dash?? Wha... What happe--AHHHHH!!!!!" Thunder Lane's first words were cut off as a vicious shot of pain raced from his damaged wing straight through the rest of his body, dropping him into a prone position. As gingerly as she could, Rainbow let some of her weight fall onto his quivering shoulders, pinning him down to the ground.
"Thunder, your wing is broken, so try to lie still! Moving will only make it worse!"
"That bad, huh?" replied Thunder, his scrunched eyes betraying the pain he was trying to hide with sheer stubbornness. "How's Cloud Kicker? Is she ok?"
"She sprained her fetlock, but she'll be ok! Right now though, I need to tie down your wing before you damage it further!" Rainbow's mind quickly went back to the first aid training she received from the weather team school, and an idea struck her.
Grabbing her goggles off of her own neck, she set them on the ground, working quickly but gingerly to remove Thunder's goggles from his neck without moving him. She set to work disassembling both of them, separating the black elastic bands from the eye pieces. Fighting her soaked hooves and her frayed nerves, Rainbow didn't hear the metallic shriek ring out in front of her.
"'RAINBOW GET DOWN!!!"
Still fighting the elastic from the goggles, Rainbow didn't even have time to respond before Cloud Kicker dove into her, knocking them both to the ground seconds before the sign from the Sofa & Quills store tumbled through the air mere inches above the now prone mares. The blast of wind in the sign's wake tore one of the elastic bands from Rainbow's hooves, carrying it too into the endless maelstrom.
"You ok?!" yelled Cloud Kicker, as she struggled to roll off of Rainbow without aggravating her injured leg even more than she already had.
"Yeah, I'm ok! I guess this makes us even now!" she responded. "But, I lost the elastic from my goggles, and I needed them to tie up Thunder's wing!"
Realizing that she had managed to hang onto her own pair in the initial crash, Cloud Kicker removed her goggles as best she could, totally unused to using her left hoof for such motions. She tossed them to Rainbow, who snagged them out of the air. "Here, take these! I'll look out for any more flying signs!"
With an affirmative nod, Rainbow set to the task once again. Working as quickly as her soaked hooves could move, she disassembled the new pair of goggles, tied the two elastic bands together to increase its overall length, and proceeded to tie them around Thunder's broken wing. After a few loops and a series of double-knots, Rainbow had managed to tie down the damaged wing enough to prevent most movement.
"This isn't perfect, but it'll keep the break from getting worse. Try not to move your wings, got it?!"
"Yeah, I've... Owww... I've got it!" replied Thunder. He was still in pain, but the makeshift splint at least took the edge off. Rainbow nodded her head in reply as she concentrated on lifting Thunder to his hooves, taking care not to touch his soaked, battered wings. Though uninjured, his legs were still very unsteady as a result of the crash, so Rainbow leaned into him a bit to keep him steady as they made their way back to Cloud Kicker.
"This is hopeless!" said an exhausted Rainbow. "Both of you are injured, and this storm's only getting worse! We need to find some shelter, and some medical attention!"
Cloud Kicker took a quick look around the square, trying her best to shield her face against the now sideways driven rain. "There's mostly businesses here Dash, and the shop keepers all retreated to their homes! So, unless you want to break into a store, we need to think of another place to go!"
A thought clicked in Rainbow's head. The library was just a few blocks past the edge of the square, and she knew that everything they needed was there - warmth, shelter, Twilight's surprisingly adept medical spells, and most importantly for Dash, Twilight herself.
Just the thought of the bookish unicorn sent her mind racing back to what was supposed to be the biggest event of the night. It had taken weeks of mental preparation, but Rainbow had finally worked up the courage to ask Twilight out on a date. Since her first introduction to the bookish unicorn, Rainbow's weekly stops by the library had become as routine as her weather patrol work. But what began as friendly chats about nothing in particular soon became the highlight of her week, and Rainbow quickly began to learn more and more about the nerdy librarian from Canterlot; and the more she learned about the Princess's personal student, the more enamored she became.
Fluttershy, Rainbow's lifelong confidant, had advised her to take it slow. She and the other Elements of Harmony had grown quite close to each other since coming together to stop Nightmare Moon, but that was no guarantee that Twilight harbored similar feelings for Rainbow - or for any mare, for that matter.
'Fluttershy may be right', Rainbow thought to herself, 'But I'll never know if I don't ask her. Sure, there's a chance that this won't work, but what if it did?' For just a moment, the rain, the wind, the endless claps of thunder faded to the background as Rainbow's mind turned to much happier thoughts. 'But if it does work, and Twilight does go out with me? Oh, Celestia, it's going to be so awesome. Tons of conversation, lots of warm fires. I know - for our first date, I'll take her to get milkshakes! Twilight said she loves them, but never finds time on her calendar to go get one. Ahhh...I wonder what flavor she likes? Perhaps I should just order one shake and two str--'
CRA-BOOOM!!
A horrifically loud thunderclap erupted right behind Rainbow, ripping her mind out of its ill-timed day dream, and spiking her pulse well past what one would call comfortable. Her senses jolted into hyper-speed, the incessant assault of rain, wind, and flying debris felt twice as intense, the combined effects putting her on the edge of a rare state for her - fear.
"This is too much! We can't stay out here!" she yelled to her partners, who were doing their best to stay low to the ground to avoid any additional airborne debris.
"Huh?! You want to do what?!" replied Cloud Kicker, clearly guessing as to what Rainbow had just said. With the wind blowing harder than ever, even yelling was now all but useless. Rainbow was about to try yelling again, when another flash of lightning ripped open the sky around them, the accompanying thunder clap blowing out what few windows remained in Bon Bon's candy store.
They had to go now - before the incessant lightning found its mark. Rainbow nearly fell twice as she tried to stand, her hooves constantly slipping in the muddy soup that now passed for ground. Her head was pounding as hard as her heart, her vision was still clouded by the rain, and hearing was all but impossible. She was running on pure instinct - and this time, unlike so many times before, it told her to get out of trouble, instead of running straight to it.
She was about to begin dragging her injured partners to their hooves, when nearly every feather on her wings stood straight up into the air, the underlying bones tingling like a tuning fork as the static charge raced around and through her. The ringing in her ears built up so fast, she had to fight to keep from blacking out on the spot. The air around her was almost humming as the charge continued to build at a frightening rate, as if the already destructive storm was pausing long enough to taunt the trio of drenched, battered, and injured pegasi.
Rainbow had barely hit the ground again when the gates of Tartarus broke loose around them.
A massive surge of lightning raced its way through the wall cloud, drawing a jagged, crackling circle of light above the square. In the blink of an eye, the searing white light arced in and out of the clouds, splitting and reforming more times than anypony could possibly count. Under any other circumstance, the instantaneous display of light and power would be awe-inspiring, but this unnatural storm, this accidental creation of pure destruction, had saved its worst for last.
As the white-hot light raced above them past the end of the square, a second lightning bolt shot down into its path, splitting the first arc and sending an enormous blast of energy directly to the ground. The ground strike was immediate, lighting up the blackened sky with a flash that would have rivaled the sun itself.
If the sun was pink.
Rainbow didn't have to wonder what the lightning had made contact with when it hit. Even the horrific roar of the accompanying thunderclap couldn't drown out the blood-curdling scream that ripped through the air around her, sounding in her ears like an enraged banshee. As soon as it pierced her ears, Rainbow's heart nearly stopped mid-beat.
She knew that voice. She knew it all too well, and she knew exactly where it had come from.
Mud, dirty water, and small debris kicked up all around her as Rainbow tore across the square, running as fast as she could towards the library. She didn't so much as glance back to her injured partners, who were struggling to get to their hooves without exacerbating their injuries. At that moment, Rainbow was focused only on getting to the Golden Oak library as fast as she could, abandoning all regard for her surroundings or her physical condition.
Nearing the opposite edge of the square, Rainbow was closing fast on a row of benches, some of which were nestled in between the remains of formerly tall, well-manicured shrubs. Driving more speed into her tired legs, she planted her rear hooves into the muddy ground and launched herself into the air, her barrel clearing the top of the bench with room to spare. Under other circumstances, Rainbow might have stopped to admire her athletic prowess, but now, with her potential marefriend in dire need, she continued her charge as soon as her hooves touched the ground.
Rainbow rocketed out of the square and down the street, her thundering hooves creating a massive spray of water in her wake. Despite its tattered, water-logged condition, the sheer force of the wind still splayed her mane out behind her head. Continued lightning strikes lit up the sky like an ill-timed strobe light, revealing Rainbow as a single streak of color against the oppressive black sky.
Her heart hammered in her chest as she bore down on the final corner before the library. Leaning to her left, Rainbow dug her hooves into the ground, willing her body to take the turn at a near right angle. The muddy, flooded ground betrayed her front hooves though, and the sudden loss of traction sent her sliding into a food stall that had up until this point weathered the storm.
She screamed out as her body fell wildly into the small wooden stall, her momentum all but tearing the structure to shreds in her wake. Pain lanced through her body as splinters and shards of wood attacked her coat from all angles, taking every opportunity to draw blood as payment for its untimely destruction. Rainbow paid none of it a shred of a thought as she struggled to get up, her hooves still slipping on muddy ground and wet, broken planks of wood.
Finally throwing the last plank off of her back, Rainbow jumped out of the broken remains of the stall and turned towards the street, rearing up to continue her mad dash. She was about to take off when her eyes focused ahead to the library, now less than a hoofball field length away.
What was once a nightmare for Rainbow turned into an unimaginable hell.
At the end of the street was a towering inferno that at any other time would have been the Golden Oak library. What should have been a friendly, inviting structure now looked as if a piece of Tartarus itself had teleported to Ponyville. For a fraction of a second, Rainbow stood in pure shock, her mind grinding to a halt as it tried to process what her eyes were seeing. The command to do so never registered in her brain, but still, Rainbow cried out as she bolted down the street, her hooves driving her forward on pure instinct alone.
"TWIILLIIGGHHTTTT!!!"
As she rapidly closed the distance to the burning structure, Rainbow could see a small gaggle of other ponies rushing around the building. Some were merely panicking, while many others were running back and forth with buckets of water, doing their best to try and quench the flames that were quickly spreading throughout the ancient tree. Rainbow barreled headlong into the group of impromptu fire-ponies, grabbing the first one she could by its mane.
"Where is she?! Where's Twilight?!"
"She's trapped in there, and we can't get to her!" he replied, the earth pony's rain drenched eyes narrowing to pinpricks as he realized to whom he was speaking. "We came as soon as the lightning struck, but the fire is too hot! Wh... What they hay are you do--"
His last words were lost to the howling wind as Rainbow nearly ran him over in a mad run towards the library. Searing flames licked at her coat and tail as she skirted the edge of the tree, doing her best to get closer to the burning structure. The other ponies continued to throw buckets of water at the tree, but the water all but evaporated into clouds of steam before even touching the flames. Even the raging storm, with its torrential downpours, was no match for the intensity of the blaze. Fueled by the endless reams of paper inside, the fire continued unabated, coursing down the tree like a molten snake.
Fighting for traction with every step, Rainbow continued her mad rush around the burning tree, taking short jumps into the air in a continued attempt to see into the upper windows for any sign of Twilight. Rounding the right side of the tree, she spotted a small opening in the billowing cloud of smoke that was enveloping the immediate area. Taking a gulp of acrid air, she turned straight into the smoke and lunged through the gap in the haze, finding herself in front of the large window that looked out from the modest kitchen that was situated just off the main room of the library.
"TWILIGHT?! TWILIGHT, CAN YOU HEAR ME?!" Rainbow screamed at the window, her voice carrying as high as her smoke and soot filled lungs would allow her. Ignoring the incessant rain that insisted on shoving her mane into her eyes, she continued yelling, craning her neck in every direction imaginable to see through the thick haze that was quickly obscuring her view of the interior room.
With each passing second, the raging fire crept further and further down the remaining exterior of the tree, raining equal amounts of burnt debris and sheer desperation on top of Rainbow. Ignoring the rain, the soot, and the debris, she reared up on her hind legs and pressed her muzzle up to the window, her forelegs knocking on the glass in tune with her continued cries to her still unaccounted for friend.
"TWILIGHT!! WHERE ARE Y--AH!" her voice was cut off mid-yell as a pair of hooves appeared out of nowhere, planting themselves onto the inside of the smoke filled window. Rainbow's eyes widened in shock as Twilight's upper body emerged from the smoke, as if she were an apparition from on high. The moment of elation she felt upon seeing her friend was quickly crushed as her eyes focused on the unicorn's condition. Her coat and mane were tattered and soot stained, her blood-shot eyes showing the effects of extended exposure to the smoke and heat. Much of her body was still obscured by the smoke, but the uneven heaving of Twilight's chest told Rainbow all that she needed to know about the mare's physical state; she was in bad shape already, and couldn't last much longer trapped as she was.
"Twilight, can you hear me?!" yelled Rainbow, her muzzle pressed up to the window as if she could physically force her voice through the glass. Twilight stopped a coughing fit long enough to nod her head to indicate that she had at least heard the pegasus say something.
"Can you make it to the front?! I can run in there and grab you!" she yelled again, pointing a soaked and matted foreleg towards the front side of the library.
Twilight shook her head back and forth as she tried to force a response past her burnt vocal cords. Rainbow could see her lips moving, but could not pick out the unicorn's weakened voice over the roar of the encroaching fire and the still raging storm. Seeing the confused look on Rainbow's face, Twilight leaned off of the window, and with shaky hooves, spelled out her response in the thick fog that was growing on the inside of the glass:
FIRE
As if to accentuate her point, the door on the other side of the room suddenly collapsed on itself as the raging fire took its toll on the wooden frame and simple metal hinges. Twilight whipped her head around to see flames quickly moving through the door frame, already pressing the attack to the fixtures and walls in this, the last room left on the ground floor. Panic began to grip Rainbow like a vice, setting off the equivalent of a hundred sonic rainbooms inside her head at once. Time was running out, and the options were expiring even faster than the clock. Grasping for something, anything that could help, she yelled out again.
"What about magic?! Can you teleport outside?!"
Again, Twilight shook her head, though even that motion was cut short as bone wrenching coughs rocked her sweaty, tattered frame, what little air she could hold choked out of her lungs by the now blackening smoke.
Her mind quickly racing towards the edge, Rainbow banged her hooves against the window to regain Twilight's attention. "It's the only thing left Twilight!! You have to try! Please, you have to try!!"
Twilight looked behind her again to find the flames nearing the middle of the room, the island and a few other fixtures now the only things left between her and oblivion. Steeling herself for the task, Twilight closed her blood-shot eyes and focused what little strength she had left into her horn. Slowly, a few sparks began to trickle from her soot-stained horn, bouncing off of the floor like the remnants of a tiny firecracker. She ground her teeth together as she bore down harder on the teleportation spell, but her magical grip was quickly slipping. Faster and deeper breaths only drew more acrid, poisonous air into her lungs, which only clouded her oxygen deprived mind more. Still, her mind tore at itself, squeezing everything it had into the slowly growing magenta orb at the tip of her horn.
"Ahhhh... Ngh... AHHHH!!!" The fire had just reached the opposite side of the island when Twilight's magic finally hit a wall, the now spent unicorn letting out a painful wail as she collapsed into the counter that sat just in front of the window. She could barely hear the continued thud of Rainbow's hooves on the window, and the severely muffled voice that still called out to her. Pulling herself up, she raised a battered foreleg to the window and drug it across the soot and fog covered glass, again revealing herself to her panicked friend on the outside.
Rainbow was still banging her hooves into the double-paned window, the hardened glass proving as resilient against her repeated blows as it normally did against the elements. She was about to strike the window again when Twilight's face again appeared through the fog and smoke, somehow looking even worse than she had a few seconds ago. Another bolt of lightning lit up the sky behind Rainbow, casting the battered, nearly broken unicorn mere inches in front of her into a painful, almost cruel relief. Rainbow's heart was beyond the point of desperation, and well past the point of rational thought. Looking up through the rain, she saw the raging trail of fire drawing closer, the wind having driven the flames nearly around the entire library. Smoldering embers and debris now fell steadily around her, some singing her coat and tail as they bounced off of her soaked frame.
Out of time, and out of options, Rainbow's mind completed its sprint over the edge, abandoning all pretenses of safety and logic to a wild, desperate rage. 'To Tartarus with it! If Twilight can't get out, I'm going in there to get her - consequences be damned!' Steeling herself for what she was about to do, she yelled out again to Twilight.
"HOLD ON TWI!! I'M COMIN IN TH--"
A sickening, stomach-turning crack shook the tree, the sound audible even over the raging fire. Rainbow snapped her head up again to try and identify the source of the noise; she didn't have to look for too long before the storm gave her an answer.
Another horrific snap rung out from the tree, and Rainbow could only watch in horror as the top half of the tree, scorched and decimated by the fire, imploded.
"TWILIGHT GET OUT OF THERE!!!!!!!"
Whether the unicorn ever heard her, she couldn't tell.
The fiery remains of the top of the tree crashed through the ceiling into the main level of the library, seemingly crushing everything in its path. Twilight was nowhere to be seen, the kitchen now fully engulfed in flames.
"Nonononono... NOOO!" Rainbow screamed as she launched herself into the air, darting back about thirty feet from the window. She spun around in the air, and taking aim for the window, she shot forward as hard as she could. At the last possible second, she flipped in the air to lead with her hind legs, and with a final burst of speed, slammed herself into the kitchen window. The window exploded around Rainbow as she drove through the opening, closing her eyes against the hail of broken wood and shattered glass that hit at her from all sides.
However, her successful breakthrough into the kitchen was as short as it was sudden. The sudden influx of oxygen into the kitchen instantly created a massive back-draft that flew right at the incoming pegasus, flinging her back out of the now broken window as fast as she had come crashing through it.
"AAAHHHHH!!!" Rainbow screamed as she was flung back like a foal's favorite rag doll, the remnants of flame still licking at the tattered edges of her mane and tail as she flew backwards. With a few loud thuds, Rainbow skidded to a stop on the ground about fifty feet away from the tree.
Her mind and vision were reeling from the impact and the sudden vertigo, but Rainbow needed neither of them to comprehend what she was seeing. There, fifty feet in front of her, she witnessed the final destruction of the Golden Oak Library. The now uncontrollable flames raced through the remaining structure, feeding ravenously from the fresh oxygen that Rainbow's failed rescue attempt had introduced into the mix.
The word 'failure' crossed Rainbow's mind, and immediately it clicked together. Her rescue attempt had failed, and somewhere in the inferno was Twilight Sparkle - the Librarian, the personal student of the Princess, the bearer of the Element of Magic, one of the most powerful unicorns in Equestria.
Her friend. Her best friend. The one pony she had truly fallen for. The pony that less than an hour ago, was hopefully going to agree to the first of many dates with her.
And she was gone.
For Rainbow Dash, at that moment, her entire world shattered.
Screaming hysterically, she began flailing her hooves, fighting desperately to find traction in the mud pit that passed for the ground. Completely oblivious to the still pouring rain, she clawed at the ground, dragging herself forward one hoof at a time, trying to draw herself back to the now fully engulfed tree.
Her uneven progress was abruptly stopped as two grey hooves dropped onto her back, bringing what little momentum she had to an immediate halt.
"Rainbow, stay down! You can't go back!" yelled Thunder Lane, as he tried to somehow keep Rainbow still without ruffling his still broken wing. Rainbow whipped her head around to face him, her magenta eyes filled with blind, desperate rage.
"LET ME GO THUNDER! I HAVE TO GET TWILIGHT! I CAN STILL SAVE HER!!" she screamed directly into his face, as she squirmed in every direction in an attempt to escape his grasp.
"It's too late!" he replied, trying to put more of his weight onto the deranged mare. "The fire is out of control! You'll never make it out alive!"
"BUCK YOU!! I HAVE TO SAVE HER AND YOU CAN'T STOP ME! GET... OUT... OF... MY... WAY!!!"
Rainbow punctuated her words with a sharp kick from her hind legs, catching Thunder right under his damaged wing. He collapsed immediately, unable to fight off the sudden, acute pain that shot through his body. As soon as she was free of his extra weight, Rainbow resumed her mad scramble to her hooves, her body willing itself forward before she had even stood halfway up.
She only made it a few more feet before Thunder's hooves descended upon her again, only this time his were joined by a second set of hooves as the newly arrived Cloud Kicker did what she could to hold the manic pegasus down. Rainbow pushed and squirmed all the more, her defiant cries growing louder by the second. It was all that the two other pegasi could do to hold the enraged mare down, their injuries making the task that much tougher on them.
Finally, Rainbow was able to loosen their hold on her enough to let her turn her upper body to mostly face them. She screwed her face up, preparing to launch another violent outburst, but when her mouth opened, no sound came out. Then, as the last bits of her mind crumbled like the remaining pieces of the library, Rainbow finally lost all control.
"WHY WHY WHY?! WHY DID THIS HAPPEN?! WHY COULDN'T I SAVE HER?!" The words came pouring out of Rainbow's mouth as a torrent of rage and sadness burned her from the inside out, racking her tired body with uncontrollable sobs.
"You did everything you could, and then some! There was nothing else you could have done!" replied Thunder, doing his best to inject some soothing tones into his voice. He raised a hoof to Rainbow's face, doing his best to brush a piece of mane out of her eye, but Rainbow slapped it away, screaming all the more.
"NONONONO, YOU DON'T GET IT!... I DON'T GET IT! WHY HER, WHY NOW?! SHE WAS MY BEST FRIEND! WHY HER, WHY... HY... HY..." Rainbow continued shuddering as unimaginable grief fought a war against the raging anger inside of her mind.
Cloud Kicker tightened her grip on the hysterical mare, ignoring the pain that still throbbed through her injured fetlock. "Rainbow, I know this is a lot to process, but you have to CALM DOWN. I know Twilight meant a lot to yo--"
"CELESTIA YES SHE MEANT A LOT TO ME!!" screamed Rainbow, her distraught eyes boring a hole straight through the other mare. She quickly turned her eyes back to Thunder as her voice reached seemingly impossible volume. "YOU HAVE NO BUCKING IDEA HOW MUCH SHE MEANT TO ME!!! I FELL HEAD OVER HOOVES FOR THAT MARE, AND I WAS ABOUT TO ASK HER OUT!!"
Her forelegs shot out, grabbing Thunder and pulling his muzzle even with her own. "BUT NOW SHE'LL NEVER KNOW, BECAUSE SHE'S GONE!!! SHE'S BUCKING GONE AND IT'S ALL MY FAULT!!!" Her voice finally exhausted, Rainbow nearly collapsed into Thunder, an endless stream of bitter tears falling into his already soaked and wind-blown mane.
"Gone? I'm not gone, Rainbow, I'm right here!"
Rainbow's mind froze in an instant.
She knew that voice. She knew it all too well. But this time, she had no idea where it had come from.
Rainbow whipped her head around to the source of the voice before her mind could even begin to surmise the impossibility of the situation. But when her eyes focused on the owner of that voice, time itself stopped.
Twilight Sparkle stood mere feet away from her, looking no different than she had an hour ago. Her coat and mane shone with their usual luster, the lone streak of pink in her hair laying exactly where she remembered it. Her violet eyes were as clear and vibrant as a sunny day, and her horn bore not a speck of soot or dirt on it.
"Twilight?! Wait, this can't be real... YOU can't be real!" Rainbow's entire body shook as she spoke, her mind too broken to even try to rationalize what was surely a mirage, or some ungodly trick of the mind.
"No, it's me Rainbow. I'm really here, and I'm very real," replied Twilight, her face glowing with the same soft, warm smile that had enraptured Rainbow countless times before.
Still, Rainbow's mind refused to accept the validity of what her eyes tried to tell her. "NO, that's not possible! I saw you in the library - in the fire! I tried to save you, but I failed! I WATCHED IT ALL BURN, FOR LUNA'S SAKE!! YOU'RE... NOT... REAL!!"
Twilight took another step forward, closing nearly all of the small distance between the two mares. She stared directly into Rainbow's tear-stained eyes as she spoke. "If I wasn't real, you wouldn't be able to feel this."
"Feel wh... Mmph!" Rainbow's response was cut off as Twilight darted forward, locking her lips to Rainbow's in a fervent, heated kiss. Rainbow's mind struggled to process anything, but as Twilight wrapped a hoof around Rainbow's neck to press the kiss deeper, she closed her eyes, slowly surrendering what was left of her soul to this very authentic figment of her tattered mind.
Suddenly, everything changed. The raging storm receded to a drizzle, while the raging inferno dissipated into something the size of a campfire. Her tattered, soaked coat began not just to dry, but to grow warm and healthy, as if she had never been outside at all that day. Even the night sky, which had been blacked out by the horrific storm, began to reveal itself once more, the many creations of the Moon Goddess lighting the nighttime with their faint glow.
Finally, Twilight, or some apparition thereof, broke the kiss.
"Rainbow, open your eyes."
------------------------
Her eyes snapped open, and in an instant, reality hit Rainbow like a sack of apples. The soaked, muddy ground was gone, replaced with a soft bed covered in a crumpled mess of star-crossed sheets. The endless roar of the wind and rain were nowhere to be found, replaced by the beat of her still thundering heart. Even the fire, with its blinding light and searing heat, had disappeared, replaced with the soft glow of a lantern, and the controlled warmth of a fireplace.
A full body chill shot through her frame as her mind caught up to the fact that she was curled up on a corner of the bed and covered in a cold layer of sweat, her mane and tail matted and frazzled worse than she had ever seen.
"It was the nightmare again, wasn't it," said Twilight, a look of concern etched onto her face as she slowly walked across the bedroom, taking a seat next to Rainbow on the bed.
A wave of embarrassment washed over the still shivering pegasus, her face too ridden with despair to look up at Twilight. "Yeah, it was... Again."
Twilight gently placed a hoof onto Rainbow's as she continued. "Was it the same one as last time?"
"No... It was worse," she replied, her shaky voice doing its best to stay even. "Much, much worse, in fact."
Twilight drew a deep breath, trying her best to keep her mind focused. This wasn't the first time that Rainbow had been awakened by these nightmares, but this night was by far the worst. If not for the sound deadening spell that she had hastily cast over her bedroom, Spike, and probably half of Ponyville, would have heard Rainbow's anguished screams as the nightmare overwhelmed her sleeping mind. It was never easy hearing Rainbow describe what her mind's eye had seen, but if listening helped Rainbow in any way, she'd do it gladly. It was the least she could do for the pony that saved her life - and in doing so, captured her heart.
"Ok, Rainbow, tell me. What did you see? How bad was it?"
Rainbow looked up at that moment, her gaze rising to match Twilight's. For a few seconds, she looked deep into the unicorn's violet eyes, her lower lip quivering as her mind struggled to begin recounting the horrors it had just acted out. She began to speak, fighting back tears with every word.
"It was the same as before. The accident, the storm, the lightning, everything. But... But this time..." Rainbow stopped to try and collect herself once again, her resolve quickly fading under the weight of the dream. "This time... I... I failed! I failed you, Twilight! I'm so, so sorry!"
"Failed?" asked Twilight. "What do you mean? How could you fail anypony?"
The image of the burning tree flashed in Rainbow's mind once again, shattering what little grip she had on her emotions. She flung herself into Twilight, burying her muzzle into the unicorn's mane.
"I did fail you! I saw the library burn, and I couldn't save you! I tried and I tried, but I FAILED! DAMNIT TWILIGHT, I FAILED, AND I LOST YOU!!" Rainbow continued to sob and cry freely, her body shuddering with each broken breath.
Twilight wrapped her hooves around the still sobbing pegasus, holding onto her as tightly as she could. "Rainbow, that was three months ago, and you know that's not what happened. Yes, there was an accident at the weather factory, and yes, a lightning strike set the library on fire. But you did it; you saved me, remember??"
"But... But the fire! I couldn't stop it!" replied Rainbow, her weak voice further muffled by Twilight's mane.
"You didn't need to, Rainbow! Your partners on the weather team helped put out the fire, but not before you dove through the kitchen window to pull me out of here. We even have coordinating scars to prove it. Here, look."
Loosening their embrace, Twilight used her now free hoof to brush her mane over to the other side of her neck, revealing a small patch of smooth, hairless skin. "A piece of debris got caught under my mane as I ran away from the flames upstairs, and by the time I dislodged it, my skin was a bit burnt. I'll be ok, but the fur won't grow back."
Rainbow's eyes narrowed to pin pricks at the sight of the injury, but owing to her previous runs through episodes like this, Twilight continued before Rainbow could respond. "As for you, your right hind leg was cut fairly badly when you dove through the window to get me."
Rainbow immediately sat up straighter, her head bending down and around to observe her legs. There, on the inside of her hindquarter, was a pink, somewhat jagged scar about an inch long. "Oh Celestia," she muttered. Twilight kissed her free hoof, and gently placed it on Rainbow's leg.
"As I recall," she continued, "you didn't tell anypony about the injury until you came to visit me in the hospital. It took me withholding an answer to your request for a date to convince you to get the doctors to look at it at all, much less get a dozen stitches in your leg."
By now, Rainbow's sobbing had reduced itself greatly; her breaths, though shaky, came much more smoothly than they had before. Twilight looked deep into her red, tear-stained eyes, her heart aching at the sight of her marefriend in such a broken state, this long after the accident.
Born out of that storm, their still budding relationship was being tested by its ghost as it wreaked havoc on Rainbow's mind, twisting her heroism into increasingly ghastly visions. Since the nightmares had started, Twilight had begun researching dream psychology, pouring through every relevant piece in her collection, and even borrowing some more advanced works from the Royal Library in Canterlot. Clearly, there was much more for her to do, but at the moment, she knew exactly what her marefriend needed.
"Dash, you need to get some sleep. C'mon, let's get you settled." As she spoke, she got up off of the bed, giving Rainbow some room to settle back onto her side of the bed. A quick flick of her magic reset the sheets into some semblance of order, and flipped both pillows to their cooler side. Rainbow settled in with her back to Twilight, her breathing still punctuated with small gasps and sniffles.
Another flick of her magic set a bookmark in the thick research book she had been studying when Rainbow first woke up screaming. Closing the book, she stepped toward the bed, slipping under the covers behind Rainbow. A final pinch of magic doused the light from the fireplace as well as the bedside lantern, leaving the soft glow of the moonlight as the only source of light in the room. Twilight scooted closer to Rainbow, wrapping her hooves around the mare as she snuggled against her back.
"Twilight?" asked Rainbow, her voice tired and weak from so much crying. "Am I going to be ok? Will this ever stop?"
In that moment, there was only one thing that Twilight could say, even if she wasn't entirely sure of herself. "Everything's going to be ok, Rainbow. You risked everything to save me... Now it's my turn to save you."
Facing the other way, and gazing out at the moon, Rainbow never saw the faint glow of Twilight's horn as she cast a soothing spell to lull the pegasus into a silent, dreamless sleep.
Nor could she see the tears that rolled down the unicorn's cheek, as she silently cried herself to sleep behind her.
